In a decisive move following the tragic stampede at the El-Wak Sports Stadium that claimed six lives, the Minister for the Interior, Muntaka Mohammed Mubarak, has announced a radical restructuring of the nationwide security services recruitment process.
The core of the new plan is to strictly limit the number of applicants screened at any single centre to a maximum of 1,000 per day.
Speaking on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show on Monday, November 17, Alhaji Mubarak detailed the new safety protocols, which prioritise crowd control and applicant welfare over speed, and confirmed that the rescheduled recruitment period is now expected to run until December 19.
Decongesting the Process: More Centres, Smaller Batches
The minister revealed that the security services, including the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF), Ghana Police Service, and Ghana Immigration Service (GIS), will significantly increase the number of screening centres across the country, especially in high-demand regions like the Greater Accra Region.
He specified the planned logistical scale-up:
“Depending on the number applied per region, we will have up to 15 centres per city… And we should go out and look for centres that will be able to adapt to our fitting.”
Alhaji Mubarak pointed out that while the police service has previously managed multiple centres, the new approach will dramatically expand the network to handle the high volume of job-seeking youth more safely.
“The police said in the past, they have done up to 6, 7, even 8 centres before. And I’m saying that literally for many of the places, we can do up to 10.”
To meet the anticipated demand, the minister confirmed plans to secure large, adaptable venues.
“I’m willing to write to my colleagues. So, for example, for Accra Sports Stadium, The Legon Sports Stadium, and for every space possible, so that we have at least 15 centres.”
The 1,000-Applicant Daily Cap
The most significant change is the introduction of a rigid daily quota to prevent the dangerous massing of applicants, which was the direct cause of the El-Wak disaster.
The minister said they would “ensure that no centre will operate more than 1,000 or will screen more than 1,000 individuals a day, and even with this 1,000, no centre should do more than 500 in the morning session and 500 in the afternoon session.”
The minister stressed that this limitation is a direct safety measure, overruling the perceived capacity of large venues.
Citing the example of the Accra Sports Stadium, which can seat approximately 40,000 people, he explained:
“They said, oh, because Accra Sports Stadium has a capacity of about 40,000, we can do about 1,000 in the morning. I said, no, we have to do 500. Because it is not about what the stadium can take, but it’s about the crowd that will be outside trying to get in.”
Inter-Agency Teamwork for Crowd Control
The new strategy also mandates an unprecedented level of cooperation among Ghana’s security services.
The minister emphasized that crowd control cannot be the sole responsibility of the recruiting agency, particularly given the stakes involved.
“So, you know, when it comes to crowd control, police do a little better than some of the other services. So, we agree that when we are recruiting, even for immigration, if the numbers are large, the police will be there to assist. If they are doing that to the police, immigration, and others will be there to assist. So, we work as a team and not say, oh, because it’s for policing, let them handle it themselves. And then, it shouldn’t affect all of us.”
This collaborative approach aims to execute the exercise “without much duress on the applicants” and ensure the safety protocols are maintained throughout the process, which is now expected to conclude on December 19, 2025.
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